sector through this town of about 32,000 people, with aerial support up above, heavy military support down below and literally going house to house, with canine units, to try and seek k seek out this suspect who appears to be the only remaining suspect now in the tragic bombing of monday. >> what are the authorities telling you on how it's possible that that suspect got away? we've been talking about the chain of events after the gunfight with police, and he apparently runs over his brother, who was dead as a result of that fight. how did he -- and law enforcement is doing a great job, but how is it that he got away? how far could he have gotten? >> well, he could be anywhere. they still -- the operative theory as far as everybody that we have heard as of midday today was that he was still here, or

in the immediate boston area. but as one of your guest said, he's a local boy. he knows this area and knows where to hide and where to go. the hope is that they've got him, but he certainly isn't making himself known. and one of the things about keeping everybody inside is that if he does go outside, if he does try and get away, he would be pretty easily spotted. i mean, this is really -- it is like a ghost town with the exception of the military and an awful lot of media waiting here. the thinking is you would know him. this is where they chased him to and where they last had him. so it makes sense that there's a heavy search here. but as you know, the public transit, the amtrak trains, everything has shut down in this whole metropolitan area, and a lot of people are looking for him. >> and there's really only three possible options because there

have been no new reports of car thefts or carjackings. one, he's run off into the woods, one, in which case he will get hungry and cold. two, he's forced his way into a home and is holding somebody. or three, he's being housed by somebody he knows. and that is the largest chechen commune any the united states. a lot more than three possibilities. >> or an accomplice that is housing him or given him a car or the means, any kind of means to leave the area. there's a myriad of possibilities. >> one of the great statistics you brought us earlier in the day was the percentage of the area the police say they had covered and that's got to be an important number, if they do give an update on that in this briefing. >> well, you would think so, and i've got to believe that it's going to be a lot more than that. as of midday, they said about 60% of the area that they wanted to cover they had covered. and we watched -- i mean, they seem tireless. they're going from neighborhood to neighborhood to neighborhood.

>> is there any talk, do you think that law enforcement officials are at a point where they would lift the shut-in order? >> well, i have no way of knowing. i mean, we'll see. i think that they would like to lift the shut-in order, but that would -- if they lift the shut-in order and they don't have him, that suggests, i guess, pretty obviously that he's not here. >> apparently the father telling the media that his two daughters, ages 22 and 24, also fl live in the united states in west new york and new jersey. what are you expected to hear once the press conference begins? we see that they are preparing to go public with some details. what are you expecting? >> well, we expect that they're going to go through the official timeline. we talked about that last hour, the timeline that's going to come out. some of these events we know, but we will have some more

specifics about that. also the number of unexploded ordinances that they found, unexploded ieds, i should say. many of them here in watertown, but throughout the area. which is -- i guess makes you pause and think when you've been standing around watertown all day, that there have been unexploded devices here. so they'll certainly talk about that and we hope they'll talk about progress in the manhunt. >> nbc news did report earlier today several ieds essentially around metro boston, which is a chilling fact. as you can see from the feed of the press conference, we are getting closer, at least, to this briefing and we do look forward to some more information. obviously this remains an absolute security story. it is an immigration story. it is a geopolitical story. we'll talk more about the geopolitical chechen relations story. there's the mayor. let's go to brian williams with a special report. >> this is an nbc news special

report. here's brian williams. >> let's go direct to boston, the latest briefing just starting this moment. the governor, the mayor, other officials, the latest on the investigation. >> good evening, everybody, and thank you, all of you, for your patience and to all of the viewers and listeners in the area who have also been very patient. i'm going to have colonel alvin give a quick update on what we can say about the ongoing investigation. i'll have a couple of comments then about the stay in doors request, and then we will turn it over to the mayor and then to chief devoe from watertown here. >> thank you, governor. good afternoon. i certainly want to thank all of you for your patience. i know you're all tired. we certainly are as well. but we remain committed to. this we do not have an apprehension of our suspect this

afternoon. but we will have one. we're committed to that. i want the neighborhood here in watertown to know that we went through about 20 streets here door to door with our tactical teams, we knocked on doors to ensure that everyone is safe in their homes and that they saw the police on their streets. we did limited searches of those homes to render them safe. we've also followed a number of leads this afternoon that have taken us in various places in eastern massachusetts, and none of those leads have been fruitful to this point. there's much left to be done, including ballistics and forensics work that we'll be concluding in boston in the next few days. we also have a scene up here, forensic scene where we had some exploded -- unexploded ordinance there that were made safe and removed during the course of the afternoon. that is still ongoing, but

should be completed shortly. we are going to draw back our tactical teams. but the state police will be providing additional patrols to the town of watertown over the next about two to three days, for the neighbors and the citizens community we're going to have for the chief an additional ten state police patrols augmenting the watertown police in those neighborhoods, three shifts a day, probably through monday. so again, i want to emphasize, this is a complicated investigation that's being led by the fbi. our presence here today was about the safety of the people in the community. we're confident that we did that to the best of our ability. unfortunately we don't have a positive result at this point. but for the sake of everyone that were hurt or killed during the marathon or those police

officers that lost their life or were seriously injured, we are committed to seeing a conclusion to this case. thank you. >> thank you, colonel. in light of the status of the investigation here in watertown and the developments in the course of the day, the stay indoors requested is lifted. the t is open effective immediately. we are asking the public to remain vigilant if you are out. continue to be alert to suspicious activity, unaccompanied or unateptended packages or backpacks. there is still a very, very dangerous individual at large. but we feel confident based on what we know about the status of the investigation right now that to that extent, we can return to living our lives.

in the years where the stay indoors request is in effect, that request is lifted, but remain vigilant. mr. mayor? >> thank you, governor. let me just say to the public out there, thank you for your cooperation. the last several hours. stand by. it's very helpful to us as we work on this investigation. we do not have the individual arrested yet and brought to justice, but we have a lot of leads out there. and i ask the public to continue to cooperate with us. boston will stand tall. thank you for your cooperation. thank you to the business community for working with us the last couple hours. together we'll get through this crisis. thank you. >> thank you. again, my message is to the community of watertown. it's a little different what

we're going to do here. you're going to see saturated patrols. as the colonel said, state police will be out. local communities are going to support us. we're going to see a big presence. we have searched the 20 block interior. unfortunately we didn't have any results. but we're going to continue to move forward as a community. i can't thank the watertown community enough for what you've done, your strength. but we need it to continue. as you heard, the crime scene is not done yet. that's not going to be collapsed for another few hours at least. we need your support, and please go about your business. i know there's a lot of events in watertown tomorrow and we're going to have them. but you're going to see a big police presence as we do that. thank you, and please say a prayer for those police officers. thank you. >> i just want to add that there's a photograph of our subject that's been widely

distributed. i want to remind the public that it's there. if you see this individual, please, i want to emphasize this. do not take action on your own. we want you to dial 911 to your local police department and anything that you might know about this individual, please send that to the fbi tip line. this is very, very important. i appealed the other day to the community for your cooperation and you've come through. we need that continuing cooperation to solve this. thank you. >> is he being aided and abetted in any other way? >> i think that goes to the investigation. i don't want to discuss the investigation. i'll talk about anything that happened here today. >> anything about the decision that has been made since the bombing? >> no. we're committed to this since 11:30 or 11:00 last night. we've worked through since that time.

and we have had people tirelessly walking those streets going door to door up there. unfortunately, we did not have enough people when those shootings took place in order to deal with the first aid issues that were prominent and establish a perimeter at that point in time. >> do you know where the suspect is, or do you believe you know where the suspect is, and how can you reconcile -- an armed and dangerous pipe bomb -- [ inaudible question ] >> i don't think first of all that the instruction lends itself to simple phrases, right? we are where we were effectively as of monday night or tuesday morning. it was a couple of exceptions. one of the suspects is dead. there was a firefight out here last night. some 200 rounds and explosives.

so we were very justified, i believe, based on what we understood about the investigation in taking what we knew was a big step in asking people to stay indoors while we went house to house here, and in other communities close by to which we believed the suspect or law enforcement believe the suspect could have fled. the investigation has continued to develop. we can't give you all the reasons of those developments right now. we will in time. we can't right now. but we feel it is prudent to be able to say to people you can get back out as long as you are vigilant. >> just the state police or the municipalities? >> this has been an ongoing effort of the joint terrorism task force. it was from its onset and it will continue to be that. so you have the fbi, the state police, and all of the local

police departments, including the boston police department. >> do you believe the suspect is still in the boston area or has he fled? >> i think i would be -- no, i don't have any direct knowledge that he's here in the boston area, but we don't think he could get much further. his ties seem to be here. >> how and when did you know that they were -- [ inaudible question ] >> i think this developed rather quickly last night. and i would wager that most of the activity that was printed in the media yesterday forced them to make decisions or take actions that ultimately revealed who they were. [ inaudible question ] yeah, i want to be clear the armed robbery. these folks do not appear to be the individuals who were involved in the armed robbery.

they were at the 7-eleven in cambridge at a time that was somewhat coincidental to that and we retrieved a surveillance video out of the 7-eleven. but they were not involved in an armed robbery of that convenience store. [ inaudible question ] no, i don't want to comment on that, because that's a homicide investigation. but all of this individual's ties were here in massachusetts, and we believe that's the only person that we're looking for at this time. [ inaudible question ] yes, i believe he's still in massachusetts. [ inaudible question ] no, the whole point in providing that extra coverage for watertown is for the benefit of this community. we've had this whole community, in fact, the greater boston area, as you know, shut down today. but in particular, these folks had a shooting in their

neighborhood last night. there was a loss of life up there. it was very violent activity. and so to provide that level of comfort to those folks up to there in that neighborhood, we're providing or supplementing the watertown police department. >> do you think someone is helping him? >> i'm not going to do that. [ inaudible question ] >> i'm not aware of a mercedes. >> did you learn anything about what the suspect's intentions may have been regarding additional attacks? was there any indication that they wanted to -- [ inaudible question ] >> it was clear that there were explosives that they had with them last night. they threw those at the police officers that were pursuing them. beyond that, what their

intentions were would be a matter of supposition. i'm not going to do that. [ inaudible question ] which car? >> the one with the blown out window. the one that you had been looking for. >> you're talking about the honda. that car is being processed at this point. but its relevance to the case is still not known. >> worried about vigilantes? >> it's not something that i've considered. i'm worried about apprehending this particular subject. he's a very violent and dangerous person. that's our primary concern. >> operating under the assumption that he has a vehicle? >> we don't know of a vehicle that he has.

>> you have the entire city on lockdown to search for this suspect. what's changed in the last eight hours that you feel the people should feel loose and what is your message to that suspect? >> my message to the suspect is to give himself up, to stop any further violence towards anyone. in terms of where he is at this point, we cannot continue to lock down an entire city or an entire state. we are confident that we've done what we can do here in this particular neighborhood in terms of our search. unfortunately, that was not fruitful. but we are redoubling our efforts and we are as committed as we were this morning towards apprehending him. >> but has anything changed in the last eight hours -- >> let's go quickly, we do want to hand off to our stations for a little bit here. on the east coast, "nightly news" is ten minutes away. pete williams watching and listening with us in washington. pete, what's your educated guess here? is this because of intel, or a mixture of wanting to lift the

outdoor ban in watertown or both? >> a little of both, i would say. number one, there was concern early on that perhaps the two brothers had confederates or accomplices. i think they've pretty much reviewed this they don't. probably the best intel they have is that he's no longer in the area, that he may be elsewhere. that's certainly the tips they're getting. so you put all that together and that's probably the reason for the decision. >> all right. so as we've just heard, after a harrowing day and think of the families, businesses have been closed, public transportation shut down. people have been locked in their homes upwards of a million of them. in many cases with their children. told not to come to the door unless they're sure it was law enforcement. that has been lifted. people will make up their own minds as to how safe they feel going out. watertown, mass, particularly will have added police presence through monday at least. the search goes on, as you heard the head of the state police

say, they have a very dangerous individual on the loose. people are urged to take a good look at his photo. 1-800-call-fbi. or in the local area, call 911. on the east coast, we're back with "nbc nightly news," an hour version on many stations, in about ten minutes. >> brian williams and pete williams bringing us up to speed. let's go back to that presser in watertown, massachusetts. >> we are convinced that we did absolutely everything that we could in this neighborhood to ensure that this individual is not where he left last night. last question. >> how did he get away? do you have a sense of where he is? >> he abandoned a car that he had used that was involved in the pursuit from cambridge here to watertown last night. in terms of how he got away, he did it on foot. he fled on foot. i don't know where he went

specifically after that. >> so he abandoned the car in watertown -- >> that's all. >> motive remains under investigation. as i said to staffers, much of this remains under investigation. this is going to be the last briefing of the night unless there is significant development. we thank you for your help throughout the day. we thank you for your patience and we thank you for understanding that there's a lot of this we can't publicly disclose. >> all right, so the presser wrapping up. a few headlines there. one of them answering a question a lot of us have had all day, and that is how did the second suspect get away? apparently fleeing on foot from that scene. although they don't think he has left the state, there's no reason to think that he is still potentially in boston. >> you know, if he is outside, you've got the elements -- i know it's not particularly cold tonight, but he will get hungry. he may need shelter depending on the weather, so if it is outside, it's only a matter of time before he needs to get back inside somewhere, likely forcefully if that's the case, unless he is being harbored

perhaps with a friend or family member and has broken into a home. >> it's interesting that they do lift the orderer to stay indoors, although governor says be individual lant fvigilant if go outside. be careful. that increases the odds that he could blend in, although his picture has been plastered everywhere. that he could obtain the food and water and supplies that he needs. >> it's one thing to get invisible in this country. it's another thing to stay invisible. a couple of the other points, 200 rounds confirming that were dropped last night in that shootout. they had some leads in eastern massachusetts, but those were not fruitful according to the massachusetts state police. we'll take a quick break, get you more details on the boston bombing manhunt as it continues. we're back in a moment. [ male announcer ] here's a word you should keep in mind. unbiased.

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welcome back. we're joined tonight by former homeland security assistant secretary and robert mcfadden at the naval criminal investigative service. good evening to you both. i know we have got two different stories here. one is about the manhunt as it continues tonight. the other is the ongoing protection of both soft and hard targets in this country. what are your impressions given what the police just told us? >> so, you know, in terms of being concerned about him conducting additional attacks, obviously the suspect is on the run. he might have weapons with him. and potentially an ied. i'm sure that's the way they're looking at it.

but i wouldn't necessarily be concerned about him attacking a soft target. it's clear that he's on the run and trying to protect himself. >> bob, in terms of the order to now allow residents to go out of their home, what does that tell you about at what point they are at in the investigation here? is there an assumption here that he is not holed up and there's no threat there? >> yeah, i think the police are fairly certain that they've conducted a very thorough search. clearly he could have been -- he could still be potentially holed up someplace. you never want to discount that. but they've got to let people get on with their lives. if they weren't confident that they were fairly thorough, they probably would not have lifted the order. >> we talk about running away on foot. there's been no reports of other carjackings. he could have been lent a car. but how far do we know -- how far could he have gotten on foot in this time? >> well, you know, it's an urban

area. and, you know, there's plenty of places to hide there. i'm not so sure it's necessarily how far he may have gotten away. as somebody said earlier, he knows the area very well. he grew up there. he's probably got a lot of familiarity with places he could feel comfortable in. conversely, it's been a part of ten hours or maybe plus that he's gone away and maybe getting on foot, the average person can go a couple miles an hour, so you can maybe do the math on that. but i doubt he had really been moving that far. i would, again -- simply speculating here, which is always dangerous to do. probably holed up a while. maybe was threatened to move and one step ahead. it is pretty difficult to estimate. >> robert mcfadden, what is the process when law enforcement has a dragnet that apparently a suspect is able to penetrate? how do you widen those concentric circles? what's happening there tonight? >> well, said before and the

chief spoke about it as did the governor, it wasn't addressed directly, it appears that they're confident, a high degree of confidence, that the quadrant or the sector that they started in, that there's less likely a chance that he might be exactly there. although undoubtedly, he'll continue to watch that and continue to search. i think one of the scenarios too that i heard about earlier that after the firefight or what ensued, that the younger brother could have been somewhere and bled out. although again, not to directly -- it appears that that would have been also ruled out, especially with all the dogs, the k-9s they have in the area. typically, procedurely, you have the best and the brightest on the scene right there, you have the concentric quadrants where they flex, and then continue to search those areas they already searched. i'll also add though, too, i know the immediate thirst for knowledge is very, very dramatic event that's going on right now.

but the investigation continues to go 100 miles an hour, and all the different sources of information that would feed into driving where he might be, rule out accomplices, and be ready for figuring out what happened. how did these two young men get from where they were since monday and what they did and six months ago and a year ago. >> robert, follow up on that just for a second. do you believe that he could have gotten away or been hidden as long as he has without an accomplice? >> you know, the short answer is i don't know. i know there were some implications in some of the voluminous discussion today about the neighborhoods, knowing them so well. there is a very heavy chechen population. i'm sure authorities haven't ruled that out. but you can be assured with the amount of both technical and other censors going on, it's just a matter of time. >> robert, bob, thank you so much for your time tonight as we take stock of a changing situation. thank you so much.

>> michelle caruso cabrera is taking a closer look at the ties between the suspected bombers in chechnya. what do we know? >> they are described by police of being of chechen decent. that means that they or their family descended from chechnya. in the southern part of russia. it runs to the south. russia extends far north and to the right. moscow is so far north we can't even show it to you on this map. if you google match chechnya, it is not a country, it is a region. for 200 years, there has been a movement to try to separate from russia. russia has crushed a rebel movement twice since the 1990s. important. these two individuals were not born in chechnya. instead, they were born here, in kyrgyzstan. exactly how they got to kyrgyzstan and at what point, not clear, but we know they left in 2002-2003 coming to the united states. now, the older brother tamerlan, 26, now dead, we know that in

january of last year, he flew from jfk to moscow. he was over there for six months, returned from moscow to jfk in july. we don't know what happened there, except that he visited his father. scroll back down, we move south back to that region. there's chechnya. that's where his father is right now. he gave an interview to russian tv today. his father says his sons have been framed, at least that's what he believe. if you are from that region, it is muslim. what we do not know is if there is any direct connection between these individuals. one of the key movements there have disavowed them, so they're not connected in any way. the reason that they're of chechen decent is why we have focus sod much on this area of the world today. >> michelle, people have been wondering all day, the chechen fight has been about

independence from russia. what does that have to do with the united states? some have tried to argue that that movement has really morphed into something a lot more broad. is that what it is? >> that would be the question. we have an expert on earlier today who said very specifically up until now movements or attacks by the chechens have never been against the united states. they have always been against russian government locations or russian locations. there was a vicious attack on a moscow theatre in 2002, the subway attacks in 2010, and they even attacked children at one point in 2004, killing nearly 300 of them. but they've always been exclusively in russia and against russia. but that's the question, is this some kind of broader movement. >> welfare enough, but i did read today that there has been some -- a little bit of backlash in america for the lack of anger at russia politically from icaarding the russian response to the chechen attacks. in other words, there was some criticism out of that area

saying america politically was not tough enough on russia for what they did. >> that's been heavily debated. the way it's been described, we had mayor giuliani on discussing exactly this, saying that, in fact, the u.s. had almost been t supportive of the chechen rebels, seeing them as freedom fighters. i'm not sure they would ever want to openly support a group that had attacked children as well. so that's possibly speaking to the questions that you're raising. >> good primer. thank you so much. when we come back, we're live in washington with reaction from the nationcapital. this is the suspect's father in russia. >> translator: somebody clearly framed them. i don't know who exactly framed them, but they did. they framed them. and they were so cowardly that they shot the boy dead. there are policemen like that. i know what you're thinking...

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as i understand it, we are getting a statement from the family of the wife of the dead suspect in the boston marathon attacks. let's get to courtney reagan for

that. >> thank you very much, melissa. this is a statement from the woman we believe is best described as the mother-in-law of the dead suspect. and it reads, our daughter has lost her husband today, the father of her child. we cannot begin to comprehend how this horrible tragedy occurred. in the aftermath of the patriots day horror, we know that we never knew tamerlan tsarnaev. deval patrick is encouraging the citizens to remain vigilant. >> we are where we were effectively as of monday night or tuesday morning. with a couple of exceptions. one of the suspects is dead.

>> so that is what we know. we also know at this point that the boston subway system has been reopened. as we get more headlines, we will bring them to you, but for now, back over to you guys on the set. >> thanks for that. our coverage of the manhunt for the suspect in the boston marathon bombings continues, so please stay with us.

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the mayhem began last night. they shot the m.i.t. police officer in the head and killed him. the suspects carjacked a mercedes suv. >> there is a massive manhunt under way. we're asking people to shelter in place. in other words, to stay indoors. >> that pursuit ended up in watertown, massachusetts. a massive dragnet has ensued. >> officials apparently on the lookout for some accomplices other than the suspects that are related to the bombing itself. >> they were also looking for another suspect who they

believed may have hopped on an amtrak train south toward connecticut. they did not find anyone on that train. they do not know if this person still has any explosives or what might happen. >> just heard the uncle of the suspects obviously distancing himself from the individuals themselves. >> i say if you're alive, turn yourself in and ask for forgiveness. >> welcome back to cnbc. breaking news. want to take you to a live picture of fenway park in boston where the red sox were supposed to play the kansas city royals tonight. that game has been cancelled along with the boston bruins game. both games, though, cancelled even though the lockdown itself has been lifted. that according to massachusetts governor deval patrick asking residents to continue to use vigilance. >> the transit system will be up and running as well. so perhaps it's just a matter of time, matter of hours before life gets a little bit b to normal in the boston area.

bill griffith has been in boston all day, is now in watertown, massachusetts. bill, there is a conference there that was cancelled, you were there for that conference, cancelled due to today's events. what can you tell us at this hour in terms of what's it feel like on the streets of watertown now that this stay-in order has been lifted? >> yeah, the lockdown is over, but the mission is not finished. that's the feeling. what we're watching behind us here in the staging area for all the law enforcement is essentially the dismantling of the law enforcement infrastructure that they've been building all day. just in the last half-hour, since governor patrick announced the end of the lockdown, we've seen the military humvees leaving. choppers leaving. police vans from other communities that have been spending the day here leaving. swat teams that have been

combing this area, this 20-block area around watertown, they all came back. taking off their gear. looked like a long day for them. we're watching more choppers as they go. so it has the feel of a completion, but the mission is not over now. as for why they're taking the lockdown down now, during this news conference that you saw live on cnbc, the head of the massachusetts state police essentially said it's a practical matter. here's what he said. >> we cannot continue to lock down an entire city or an entire state. we are confident that we've done what we can do here in this particular neighborhood in terms of our search. and unfortunately, that was not fruitful. but we are redoubling our efforts and we are as committed as we were this morning towards apprehending him. >> amazingly, they said that there are events planned here in watertown tomorrow. and those events will go on. so the message is get back to your life, folks, even though

there is still this very dangerous individual out there. so remain vigilant even as you go back to your lives here. so that's the story here so far, guys. >> bill, thank you for that. our bill griffith in water. our coverage of the manhunt in watertown continues after this break. but first, some sights and sounds from boston today. >> suspect one is dead. suspect two is on the run. there is a massive manhunt under way. a lot of law enforcement involved in that. >> our plan at this point is we are going to continue with following up in that neighborhood. we are going through this neighborhood, going door to door, street to street. >> i say if you are alive, turn yourself in. and ask for forgiveness!

here now again is robert mcfadden. joining us as well, former fbi assistant director chris swecker. law enforcement has been facing a tremendous task here. it's a huge area they're trying to cover. they don't exactly know if he fled, left, or stayed. but do you believe they did everything they could as fast as they could to get this dragnet in place? >> that i don't know because they could very well have not set the perimeter up in enough time for him to be contained. >> okay. what could they have done better then to be a little faster? should they have gone further out with the perimeter instead

of closing in on the area they believed him to be in? >> well, they were in a reactive situation. i'm sure they did the very best that they could. it was chaotic. it was unplanned. and so i'm sure they got a perimeter up as fast as they could. they may well have contained him. he may be within that perimeter still. logic would dictate that he goes to nearest dwelling like chris dornin did, the ex-cop out in california. he made his way to an area where he could actually see the command post. >> we've had many, many experts during the course of the past few hours talking about the device that was used. we need them to believe essentially that this 19-year-old suspect is an amateur terrorist. and yet the law enforcement agents have no idea where he is at this point, although they believe he's somewhere in the state of massachusetts. i'm just wondering, are you surprised at this? that this kid has been able to get away, just elude the

authorities for so long? >> let me change that, yeah, absolutely. but as the guest said, good friend from the fbi, in the chaos that happened afterwards, particularly when you had that big of a firefight, plus using some of the tactics you see in other place where is they won't go out without a fight and look like they want to go down in a blaze of glory. safety and chaos had to have been paramount that probably led to this situation. but you know what's going to be key though, now. this event and getting this young man and getting him soon will happen sooner rather than later. it's going to be really interesting to see, though, what happened with the brother, his travels. jttf u.s. intelligence law enforcement working on it very hard. and was it the older brother -- i mean, we already saw on one of his websites earlier today, we actually used some of the language that bin laden used in 1996 where he called for war

against the united states. so was it the brother, the older brother that brought the younger brother. i think we'll be hearing a lot from behaviorists from the upcoming days about what kind of impact, was there hero syndrome and how much was the younger brother really bought into this whole thing. >> yeah, there's been a lot of discussion today, robert, about radicalization within families and how that actually is a growing trend, at least among some ethnic groups is. that true? >> well, listen. you know, bin laden is dead. and the al qaeda under bin laden is not the same. that bin ladenism, that al qaedaism, because of the lack of a counternarrative in a lot of places like we're seeing in north africa and other places, it still has a very potent and toxic effect. thankfully, in the united states, we've had a very, very low percentage. although this is a tragic event,

statistically an aberration. >> robert, chris, thank you very much for that. obviously trying to keep track of a changing situation. appreciate your time. >> thank you. >> want to get a firsthand account of how things unfolded last night. we're joined by adam williams, who found himself in the thick of things when police confronted those suspects overnight. adam, good evening. >> good evening to you. the so called blast zone is just about a block behind me and around the corner behind these commercial businesses. this sort of set the scene. we were called to m.i.t. where the officer had been shot and killed. and from there, swiftly dispatched the a gas station about a mile up the road from m.i.t. where there were reports that the suspects, the two suspects -- although at that point we didn't know who we were dealing with -- were involved in a carjacking. i was speaking with a state trooper out there when all of a sudden his superior said let's go, let's go. reporter's instinct and my photographer i was working with, we got on the road and went

straight to the scene, listening to police radios as we do as reporters. we got to the scene about a block behind me. before we even arrived, we were hearing huge percussions. we were hearing bombs going off. we were hearing multiple rounds. we understand from the governor today in his latest news conference, 200 round of ammunition were fired. and when we arrived, there were about five police cars ahead of us. and as we got out of our car and began to shoot video, dozens and dozens started to show up so we were almost boxed in with the police while all of these shots were going on on one side of us and explosions were going off on the other side of us. we found ourselves having to crouch down behind our news cars and get on the telephone and get on the air with my station here in boston and carry the coverage live. i'll tell you, it was a tense situation, and then adding the real gravity to the situation when hours later, that we found out at one point out here early this morning, we were feet away

from the suspected boston marathon bombers. >> adam, thanks so much for joining us this evening. adam williams of whdh. here now is former prosecutor, mitch epner. great to have you with us tonight. >> thank you for having me on. >> you're a former federal prosecutor, as i understand it. so as you watch these scenes unfold, what goes through your mind in terms of howcutors might start to build a case against this individual? >> well, that case has been started long ago. the case was started as soon as the bombing happened. they got the fbi involved as the lead ag lead agency because i think it's very clear they want this to be a federal prosecution. one of reasons they want a federal prosecution is there is a federal death penalty that is available, and if it was taken in the state court in massachusetts, massachusetts does not have a death penalty. >> would the case take a different course if it were deemed that the suspect and his

brother operated -- just simply domestic terrorist versus actually chechen rebels of some sort? >> that would be part of the case, but the underlying law that i believe they will be prosecuted under will be the same, section 2332-a. and because these deaths at the boston marathon were by bomb, that is considered under the statute a weapon of mass destruction, which in this case simply means any bomb or destructive device. >> let's assume the 19-year-old is apprehended and brought to trial, what is the worst case scenario, maybe best case scenario in the eyes of some in terms of punishment for this individual? >> this would be a death penalty eligible case. i assume that the federal government would seek the death penalty here. there are a number of steps that would have to be taken. there's an internal review that would start almost immediately after he was charged within the federal government all the way

up to the attorney general's office to determine whether the death penalty would be sought, and then if the death penalty is caught, there would be essentially two trials. one, a guilt phase. and then the second, a penalty phase. >> mitch, fast nacinating stuff. thanks for joining us tonight. mass transit to and from the city has been virtually shut down, including amtrak trains to and from the city. brian shackner is there, and i imagine at the best of times, penn station can be a frustrating stuff. i would imagine today it was even more stuff. >> there were a lot of frustrating things, but even though amtrak is saying there is no service from new york to boston, officials inside told me at 6:00 a train did leave for boston that will terminate at the route 128 station outside of boston. at 7:45 p.m. eastern time, a train will leave for providence. that's if for tonight they did

indicate if things trend the way they have been, they might be able to resume some service tomorrow. but today was anything but normal. security was absolutely stepped up. usually it's nypd. you do have the national guard. they also have new york state police on hand. a lot of frustrated people here. buses were basically shut. you could even fly or rent a car. we did talk to hertz and i want to give their statement. they said we've seen an uptick in new york with people traveling to new england. the increase is greater than normal. the last thing i will say is that a business angle, obviously amtrak is na profitable enterprise. >> our special coverage of the manhunt in boston continues on the other side of this break. i know what you're thinking...

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welcome back to a cnbc special report on the boston manhunt. there are some developments here. let's go to our boston affiliate. >> about two miles or two blocks down walnut street. still got a little bit of a distance to get out there. >> dan, you're on walnut street. i can give you an idea of just how much further you may have to run. you're on walnut, and have you crossed birch? >> i think that's where -- main street where walnut gets near. i didn't see what the street sign was. >> so you're at walnut, where you made a left off of school up to